an index of unspecified numbers
by callmesandy
Summary: Pepper and Tony get back together, which is good timing - Tony can take her time traveling with him. (sequel to it hit me like a diagnosis)


Notes: Title and opening quote from C Dylan Basset's No Audience. Since I spent all the time looking for it, the wedding dress is Creatures of Comfort Resort 2017 collection, look 8. Thanks to A as always. Sequel to but it hit me like a diagnosis, though you don't need to read that first.

* * *

 _A chair shifts. An index of unspecified of numbers. Or, I should be reading or_  
 _sleeping or dead. I mean, everything is noise now. I mean, it's like noise. Rotation_  
 _of the earth. I don't even believe that._

 _Subsequently, the word "clarity."_

Pepper was looking up at the sky and the entire panoply of stars so Tony said, "This getting back together sex should be blowing your mind, sweetie."

"I promise you, it is," she said, still looking at the stars. She was wet, though, he felt her warm and contracting around his dick. He kept touching her and thrusting in until she closed her eyes and came. It made him come, seeing her like that.

"That was fantastic getting back together sex," Pepper said. "Let's never have it again."

"Absolutely," Tony said. "Marry me, then."

She smiled and stopped and smiled again, her eyes were wide open looking at him. She said, "Just like that?"

"Just like that. We should have done that years ago. I should have married you two days after I met you, it would have been the best decision I made that year."

"Instead of hiring me?" Pepper curled into him.

A soft rain was falling on the glass roof but the view was still intense. Sometimes Tony had looked up at all the stars and thought of New York City and the portal. He had tried to let the anxiety and panic wash over him and wash away like the kindly therapist had told him. He had tried not to get up out of bed and work on his time travel machine like the kindly therapist had also told him, but she hadn't specified the time travel machine because he wasn't making it yet.

"Tony?" Pepper's voice was soft.

"I got distracted by the view, like you," Tony said. "And the wait for you to accept my proposal which I made, like two minutes ago." He had proposed so he said, "In addition, I was having a tiny panic attack but I got over that."

"Thank you for telling me that," Pepper said. "Fine, I'll marry you. Don't buy me a big insane diamond or anything."

"Should I buy you a huge diamond?"

"No, I mean it, I'm over diamonds," Pepper said.

"I'll buy you just a wedding band," Tony said. "We can go down to the town and do it tomorrow."

"I don't have a good dress," Pepper said. "I don't want the diamond, I do want a great dress."

"So we get married next week, I have to go to Santiago anyway," Tony said. "I bet you can get a great dress there."

"How do you get to Santiago?"

"I fly my jet there. I'm going to have to carry you for most of the way to the jet, though."

Pepper's hands were flat against his chest. The rain had gotten harder and now it was much darker. He reached over Pepper and turned on the soft light behind the bed.

"That's pretty," Pepper said. "Is that a glow in the dark plant? No, because you turned it on."

"I built it, I wanted a nightlight," Tony said. "I still like a nightlight. I can admit that because it's you."

"When were you afraid of the dark?" Her voice was soft and sleepy. His beautiful fiancée.

"All my life," Tony said. "But I can admit it now, because I'm changing and growing."

"Isolating yourself on an island where barely a thousand people live," Pepper said.

"Just for a little while," Tony said.

They both fell asleep. He woke up with the sun because it was incredibly bright. He blinked and rolled onto his stomach. He was alone in the bed. "Pepper?"

"I don't understand your kitchen, I don't understand your bathroom and I have no idea if it's even possible to take a shower here," Pepper said.

Tony laughed a little and got up out of bed. He showed her how to work the kitchen and the bathroom and where his shower was. "It feels weird with all the windows and glass to be walking around naked," Pepper said.

"Closest person looking is a satellite that doesn't do close ups," Tony said.

"Good to know," she said. "So, let's talk about your time machine."

"Time travel machine," Tony said. "I don't think it works yet."  
"Yet," Pepper said. "How is this not a recipe for disaster?"

"I said it doesn't work yet. I'm working on the kinks. There are paradoxes and timelines to consider. What I want is something that insulates the traveler from being able to affect the timeline they're visiting. So it's a bubble for the traveler," Tony said.

"That still sounds like a recipe for disaster, Tony," she said. She was impressively stern for a statuesque naked lady. "Have you talked to Vision about this?"

Tony ran through a number of lies and half-truths in his head. Then he said, "Not yet. Not yet, I'm waiting for a more finished product."

"You're waiting because he would tell you it's a horrible idea," Pepper said. "Do you really want to ride in a time bubble back to watch history or do you want to change history, specifically your own?"

Tony had a million answers to that one, too. He went with the truth. "I don't know. What actually was the Tunguska explosion from? Who was Jack the Ripper? What if we could scan every book in the Library of Alexandria? Of course, there are things I would change in my personal life, you would change, anyone would change."

Pepper pressed her lips together. She said, "We don't have that right, Tony. You don't have the right. You, you decided not to make weapons anymore. You decided that, to make a change in the world. That's the kind of thing we can do. What about the consequences of playing with time or history?"

"I told you, I'm working on it. I've seen all the movies, I don't want to make sure I was never born or you were never born," Tony said. "I promise you, I am thinking about all of this."

Pepper just looked at him.

He said, "Hey, don't you want to check your emails? You're a very busy CEO. I got a satellite uplink, it's encrypted."

"Are you trying to distract me with work? You think I should work more," Pepper said. He actually loved that look on her face, that 'give me a break, Tony' look. It was her love written on her face.

"Okay, why don't we do this?" Tony smiled at her. "I won't work on it this week and we'll revisit after the wedding."

"Promise?"

"I totally promise," Tony said. "Can I invite Rhodey? And Happy."

"Happy sits on my side of the church," Pepper said.

"Are we doing this in a church?"

"It was a metaphor," Pepper said. "Have you found Bruce? You could invite him."

"He doesn't want to be found," Tony said. "Rhodey and Happy are enough."

Pepper ambled over to her backpack, giving him a view of her fine sweet ass. She said, "Would you hate me if I invited Maria and Natasha?"

"Neither of them like me," Tony said. "But okay, then Happy's back on my side of the metaphorical church."

"Maria and Natasha like you fine," Pepper said. "Okay, four people, we're done inviting people."

"I could not agree more," Tony said.

They had a lot of sex over the course of the week. It wasn't like Tony could work on his current project so he had to focus on something. Pepper waded through the legal details and making sure her dress would be ready. She didn't invite anyone until the day before.

"We're staying at the San Cristobal Tower, my dress will be delivered there. I've also secured an officiant and made sure this marriage will be legal and binding," Pepper said. "And I'm not changing my name."

"Did you get my suit delivered, too?" Tony was packing his bag and checking on the jet through a remote checkup he'd installed.

"The new Tom Ford one? Yes," Pepper said. "This is the last time I help you with this kind of errand, after this you have to get your own assistant."

It was a really nice hotel and an especially nice room that Pepper had gotten for the two of them. It was the kind of hotel Tony had stayed in his whole life. What if he meddled with time and changed that, Tony thought, while he fixed his tie. Being poor or even less than incredibly wealthy and privileged would make Tony a very different person. He had to make sure not to do that when he was traveling in time.

He went downstairs and was enveloped in Happy's arms with a "this is the smartest thing you've ever done, Boss," while being squeezed tight.

"I agree completely," Tony said, when he could actually breathe.

Pepper was predictably gorgeous with her hair up and wearing some kind of blue dress with an overlay and belted corset thing over polka dots. She was telling Natasha and Maria that it was straight from the runway with alterations to fit and Tony knew he would never remember what it looked like exactly because he was too focused on her face, the way she looked at him.

The wedding was quick, with vows about love and honor and while he might have teared up, Pepper was absolutely crying. They had a fabulous dinner. Natasha smiled at him, Maria was surprisingly not snarky. Rhodey said, "Happy was right, nice to see you doing something smart."

They removed their expensive clothes carefully and hung them up. Then Tony literally jumped on the bed. "Come to Mr. Potts, my lovely wife."

Turned out married sex was amazingly awesome but it was Pepper, so Tony knew it would be. Pepper laid on her back and said, "I'm not changing my name, I just wanted to remind you."

"But the kids can be Stark, right?"

"Yeah," Pepper said. "You want kids?"

"If you're the mother," he said.

She kissed his cheek. She said, "Multiple kids? Because we basically have to get to work on that now."  
"I think two is the way to go. How about you?"

"Two sounds good," she said. "We really do need to get to work on that, though. I'm not young."

"I have no problem servicing you sexually as long as it takes," Tony said.

"Tomorrow morning we can talk about your time machine," Pepper said. "I didn't forget."

"I can find out who Jack the Ripper really was," Tony said. "You need to remember that."

It took Tony a week to move everything to the new house he and Pepper bought in LA. "My condo is too small for both of us, and I hate that new place you bought. Which is also too small for more than one human -"

"There's plenty of square footage, actually -"

"Which you have completely filled with robots and cars and robot cars," Pepper said. "We need a new place."

"Thank goodness we're a billionaire power couple and we can just drop this kind of money to buy one more new place in LA," Tony said.

Tony wondered how much he could recoup if he made the Robinson Crusoe Island an Airbnb, but he didn't actually want strangers wandering around his homes.

So he moved his machine and the servers and the things he'd built to build the machine, all to Los Angeles. Pepper decorated the house tastefully and Tony made sure none of his machines were immediately obvious.

At the end of the week, Pepper said, "Time travel machine. Bad idea."

"You're saying that reflexively, you're not thinking it through," Tony said.

"I don't care who Jack the Ripper was, or the Tunguska explosion. I care a little about the Library of Alexandria, I have to admit that one. But the possibility of changing the timeline is too great," Pepper said. "I know there's a lot you wish had happened differently, but we can't do that."

"Why not?"

"It's not just your life, that's why not," Pepper said, actually smiling. "Come on, you know better than me how disastrous this could be."

"As much as I would love to change history and believe me, I've thought about it - just imagine for one second a world where Hydra actually ended in World War II? Do you really think the world would turn out worse? I know at least two people who'd still be alive, probably." Tony crossed his arms and paced. "But, yes, I understand the incalculable number of things that could go wrong. So my time travel machine, as designed, is specifically about making that travel leave no traces. Be unseen, frictionless, a void that no one sees."

"A void makes a difference if something else is displaced that should have been there," Pepper said. "You know that, too."

"It's a very small void," Tony said. "I think I have most of it figured out. 99% of it," Tony said.

Pepper stared at him, with her considering face. "I know you think you're a genius," she said.

"Because I am, actually, a genius," Tony said. "That's why I think that."

"You're not responsible, it's not your responsibility to do all this," Pepper said.

"Absolutely not, I know that. I am going to be super selfish in the first test of this thing, too. I hope it actually has some value besides my needs, but trust me, that would be incidental to my intentions," Tony said.

Pepper actually laughed at that one. "Well, that's good to know. Don't do anything until Vision approves, how about that?"

"Absolutely," Tony said. "When I get to 100% I will check with him first and if he says no, then no it is. Lock the tech away until our kids make it work."

"I can't get you to ever say you'll just stop," Pepper said.

"That's not how genius works," Tony said. "You should know."

"All this time living with you, you mean?"

"No, I mean, you're a genius, too," Tony said.

She actually blushed.

He went shopping to get acclimated to this new place, then he drove home to his old new place and tinkered with his cars. When the alarm he'd set pinged, though, Tony got in the fastest car and drove home to his actual place, the place where Pepper was. They even ate together. He said, "Hey, we're on the cover of People. An exclusive."

"I told you about that," Pepper said.

"I was 100% not listening when that happened. Did we get paid?"

"We donated all of it," Pepper said. "The Avengers won't pay for themselves."

"Of course not," Tony said. "The weird part is that I was apparently interviewed for the article. It really sounded like me, it was astonishing."

"Oh, Natasha did that," Pepper said. "Again, I told you."

"That Natasha would be impersonating me in a national magazine?"

"I didn't phrase it like that, but you were busy, she volunteered," Pepper said.

"It really sounded like something I would say," Tony said. "All of it. I might have been a little more effusive in my praise of you."

Pepper shrugged. "Natasha's very good at her jobs."

"Being me is one of her jobs," Tony said.

"Just the part where you don't say anything alienating," Pepper said.

Tony didn't bother to defend himself from the alienating charge. Alienating was typical Pepper speak for Tony talking too much. He always got himself in trouble. The kindly therapist had told him the obvious stuff about pushing people away before they could hurt him, constant fear of abandonment because his dad was just so great at parenting, the usual simple diagnosis that Tony could have made himself, had made himself at age 14. But she was so kindly, and her voice was like a drug so he had actually listened. He'd lost Pepper and watched his parents be murdered so he was probably a little more open than usual.

Tony called Vision to come look at his project. He called it the project because he didn't want to give away the surprise. Not that Vision would actually really show surprise.

Vision's mindstone glowed bright as he/it scanned the machine. Tony explained his thoughts on keeping it frictionless and a void. He used some very expansive hand gestures that communicated his thoughts effectively.

Pepper came into the lab and sat pertly in Tony's chair. Vision looked over at her and then back at Tony. Vision said, "I do believe this will work."

Pepper said, "Are you kidding?"

"I would not joke about this sort of thing, Ms. Potts." Vision said, "I believe this machine would work and should not impact history by the traveller. Or travellers, in this case. I assume you plan to take Ms. Potts."

"I did," Tony said. "Damn, you're brilliant."

"I don't believe the time travel as you've laid it out will harm Ms. Potts's pregnancy, either."

Tony and Pepper looked at each other. He assumed he had the same dawning joyful smile as she did. He probably looked more goofy. Vision said, "I'm sorry, I assumed you both knew."

"No," Pepper said. "I can't be very far along."

"I would say 3 weeks and 2 days," Vision said.

"Literally a honeymoon baby," Tony said. "When we put our mind to something, wifey, we make it happen."

Pepper shook her head. "But traveling time is okay? Tony isn't going to ruin history?"

"I believe he will not," Vision said.

"You promised if Vision said yes, I could do it," Tony said.

"Okay, but you're taking me, I'm serious about this," Pepper said. Her hands were already on her stomach, like she could feel the tiny clump of cells multiplying there.

They went to the doctor, they went to another doctor. Pepper made him stop before they went to doctor three. "You're not actually looking for any news, you just want to hear we're pregnant again," Pepper said.

"It's awesome to hear, though, isn't it?" He reached for her hand so he could feel their wedding rings clang together. They didn't actually clang, of course, Tony had been much more careful than that when he made them.

It was another two weeks before they had the time. "Please don't make jokes about having enough time or creating time," Pepper said.

"There is no more appropriate time to make those jokes than as we try out my new time travel machine," Tony said. He guided Pepper to the other seat in the bubble. "This next part will feel gross, but don't worry, it shouldn't stain." Pepper still winced and groaned as the gas filled the bubble and settled on their clothes and skin and hair like oil.

"At least you didn't decide we had to do this naked," Pepper said, clearly resisting rubbing at her eyes.

"Just in case something goes wrong, I don't want to be seen by people in the past with my dick out," Tony said.

Pepper said, "Are you about to make a joke about how big your dick is?"

"No, but thank you, I really should be, shouldn't I?" He took her hand and with the other one programmed their destination.

"So we travel through time and space, but we aren't going to end up half in a wall," Pepper said.

"Of course not, I thought of that when I was making it," Tony said. Later in the process than he would admit to Pepper, but he had thought of it.

The actual act of traveling felt unbelievably weird and Tony knew from weird feelings. But then the world around them resolved into reality, and he and Pepper were exactly where he'd planned, the kitchen of Howard Stark in 1947. Pepper said, "You weren't kidding when you said your first use would be incredibly selfish."

"Not so much selfish as ego-driven," Tony said. He heard noises and pulled Pepper into a corner away from the door.

"They can't hear us," Pepper said. Edwin Jarvis and a super hot Peggy Carter walked in.

"They can't hear us," Tony said. "But if you poke them, they'll feel it and if they walk into you, they will stumble. If you prick them, they will bleed and also you'll create possible catastrophic consequences."

"So your whole frictionless time travel is based around the traveler being hyperaware at all times of where they are. What if I step on a bug?"

"We're good, Pepper, Vision said so and he knew you'd step on a bug," Tony said. He held his finger to his lips and gestured at Peggy and Jarvis.

The two of them had an incredibly dull conversation about what would be best for lunch - sandwiches were the winner - remembered sandwiches from the war, a friend of Carter's was coming to visit. Then they ate.

"Can we go now, I know your dad is the main event here," Pepper said. She whispered.

"You don't have to whisper," Tony said. "And we can't leave until they leave. If the door suddenly opens, the two observant people eating mayonnaise on toast with kippers might notice."

"That's disgusting, they're not having mayo and kippers. Ugh, why did you even mention that combination?" Pepper looked distinctly queasy.

"Believe it or not, your vomit would also be frictionless so feel free to pick a corner. I was thinking of other bodily fluids when I worked on that, but it applies to all of them," Tony said. He patted her shoulder. "Think of simple roasted chicken with no spices."

"What I want is for you to never ever again say the word mayonnaise or have mayonnaise near me or in the house," Pepper said. "Oh, thank God." Peggy got up and Jarvis followed her.

Tony held the door for Pepper. She went straight to a bathroom just off the kitchen and threw up in the sink. Tony held her hair even though he didn't really need to. Pepper said, "Is it okay if I run the water?"

"Yes, it is. We went over all this," Tony said.

"Let's go see your dad," Pepper said.

Howard was of course in the lab. He was hunched over something with his back to them so Pepper and Tony could come in and not worry too much about the door. Then Howard turned around and grabbed a flask, put it on a burner. He started talking, describing each step he was taking. Tony pointed to the bulky recording equipment on the other table.

Pepper mouthed "can we talk?"

"Absolutely," Tony said. "But I'd rather not, since the old man never let me see him work."

"Okay," Pepper said, leaning against him. "We'll be different."

"My mom was pretty great, though, so the kid's still got a good chance at some serious Daddy issues, I mean, we'll just be replicating great mom, crap dad," Tony said. He was impressed with how Howard's mind worked. He saw the similarities with how he worked and he recognized the differences. Of course, Tony had always had everything he needed to do his work where Howard was cobbling it together still at this point, even with his wealth. He wondered briefly what Howard would have done with what Tony had now.

Then Howard reached for a pair of clearly altered goggles. Tony said, "I've got a bad feeling about this."

Howard looked right at them and then said, "Who the hell are you?"

Pepper gasped. Tony was already striding across the room and putting the handy memory wipe device to Howard's ear. He caught Howard as he fell backward and propped him up on a chair. "Time to go," Tony said. "We've got 90 seconds."

"He saw us," Pepper said. "Did you change history?"

"I don't think so," Tony said. "But our next stop is 1970, so we'll find out soon enough."

It was weirder traveling forward, but in the same vein of weirdness. They were once again in Howard Stark's mansion but this time it was the one Tony grew up in. Pepper said, "Are you sure we didn't change history?"

"No, not at all," Tony said. He took her hand and then went inside the open door. "But look, there's baby me and my mom, so far so good."

Pepper said, "Your mother is beautiful."

Tony leaned against the wall opposite the bed. Baby Tony was crying, his face red. Pepper said, "Does the world explode when if you touch the baby?"

"Pretty sure it doesn't," Tony said. This didn't seem right. The baby was crying and Tony's mom was holding him, but otherwise she was just sitting on the bed, legs crossed. She was crying, too.

"Did you know your mother had postpartum depression?" Pepper's voice was irritatingly soft.

"Maybe she didn't before we did anything, but no, it would be weird if that was the change. I guess no one told me, why would they?" Pepper leaned against him, her hand was in his hair. "Why isn't anyone coming to help her? I had a nanny until I was 14."

Someone came, but it wasn't a nanny. It was Howard. A much older Howard, the one Tony remembered. Howard got on the bed and took Tony out of Maria's arms. "Hey," Howard said. "Hey, I've got him." Baby Tony stopped crying as Howard held him close and patted his back. "You want me to stay here with you?"

Maria shook her head and laid down on her side.

"We'll back up later to see our favorite girl," Howard said. He carried Tony in his arms and Pepper dragged Tony the adult out the door to follow them.

Howard took the baby to his nursery and to Tony's utter astonishment stayed there. Howard played with the baby, made faces at him. Pepper finally said, "Do you want to go home? We can have Vision scan to see if we ruined history. If it isn't immediately apparent."

"What is he even doing? My dad was never like this," Tony said.

"Yes, he was. Because he is right in front of us," Pepper said.

"Let's go home and see if we made Jay-Z president," Tony said.

"I bet he'd be a good president," Pepper said.

Coming out of the bubble, Tony immediately called Vision. Vision appeared at the house and said, "I do not detect any changes in the timeline."

Pepper said, "Would you be able to?" She'd showered the minute they were out and now she was sitting in her thousand dollar pajamas.

"I believe I would," Vision said. "It sounds like it was but a small moment. While that could have ripples beyond imagining, in this case, nothing happened. Very quick acting, Mr. Stark."

Tony rubbed his eyes. "That's Mr. Potts to you." He managed a smile and said, "Thanks, Vision."

Tony's kindly therapist had listened to a lot of Tony realigning the story of his life. He'd assumed Howard had been drunk and caused the accident that killed the two of them. He'd been wrong. He'd assumed for years that Howard didn't think much of him, but then Fury gave him that stupid film. He came around to thinking Howard had contributed by helping to create SHIELD, but then there was HYDRA. There was the Insight carriers he'd contributed to before he knew what would happen with them.

Now he would tell the kindly therapist, if he still saw her, that seeing his father be a decent parent was a whole new level of realignment. Pepper said, "Are you planning to change your name to Tony Potts?"

"It's tempting," Tony said. "But we do have a whole brand built on that Stark name."

"It's actually a pretty crappy last name. Potts, I mean," Pepper said. She patted the couch to indicate he should sit down next to her.

He went and sat down, because of course he did what she wanted. She always made him feel better, except for that horrible part where she broke his heart. But now they were married and having a baby so he could overlook that. He said, "You're just trying to distract me."

"I am," Pepper said. She put her arm around his shoulders. "Is it working? Should I just go with sex?"

"I like the idea of sex, but I feel like we should maybe talk. We're married now. We have a baby on the way," Tony said.

"Okay," Pepper said. "Is it really so shocking that your father loved you and took care of you?"

"Of course it is," Tony said. "Of course it is. He was never like that to me. Why would he be like that for some brief period of time and then a dick the rest of the time?"

"People are people," Pepper said. "We're all weird and complex and we react to things badly or we rise above or we do one one day and the other the next day."

"That's very helpful," Tony said.

"It's all I got," Pepper said. "The sad truth is that parents are people, and it's a horrible thing, they're not always great people. But they're people, you know."

"Are you going to start singing? I think that's a song, people are people -"

"Depeche Mode, it's a Depeche Mode song," Pepper said. "I love that song."

"I find your emo goth dance phase very disturbing," Tony said.

"I find your love of cock rock really boring," Pepper said.

"Cock rock is a simplistic way to describe the genre and I like more than that," Tony said.

Pepper kissed his cheek and laid her head on his shoulder. "I love you."

"I love you, too," Tony said. "I believe you were offering me sex?"

"I was," Pepper said. "Let's do that."

They had fantastic sex, just as expected.

Tony of his own volition, with no urging from Pepper at all went back to his kindly therapist. She was still very kindly and had a lulling voice. He did brag a little to Pepper about his super maturity and ability to seek help. Pepper nodded and said, "You're amazing."

"Somehow I sense sarcasm," Tony said.

"You are a genius," Pepper said. "Who invented a time machine. How's the library going?"

Tony had been going every other day to the Library of Alexandria and scanning page after page. He said, "Actually amazing. I'm not sure how we're going to release this, but it's this wealth of knowledge, it's unbelievable."

"How are you going to release this?" Pepper frowned as she sipped her smoothie.

"It's pretty impossible to suddenly discover something everyone knows burnt down. I think even SHIELD on its best day would have trouble making a cover story for that. But I had a thought, which is satellite technology."

"Stark Industries has a satellite that can see into the past and open books," Pepper said, nodding. "That's unbelievable."

"But I bet we could make people believe it," Tony said.

"I think people will assume we have a time machine," Pepper said.

"Time travel machine, and we don't want to admit that we have one because then everyone will try to make one," Tony said.

"Everyone is already trying to make one," Pepper said. "You think you're the only one who wants to know who Jack the Ripper is?"

"Let's deal with that when we have to," Tony said. "We should move on to what to name our baby boy." Pepper was 21 weeks along, so they felt nearly safe enough to plan. The little one seemed to be coming along okay even with the time travel.

"I'm still saying no to Edwin," Pepper said.

"The man basically raised me and Jarvis is an awful name," Tony said.

It was a long discussion. They were still discussing when they got into bed and Tony turned on his nightlight in a fake plant.


End file.
